Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Professor Mark Balnaves started his career in the media as a news production assistant and journalist in print and television, in Canberra and northern Victoria, and then moved to Broadglen Publishing, Melbourne. As an academic he has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Courses include cultural studies, communication and media research methodology, media audiences and public relations (theory). He has obtained funding for postgraduate scholarships and has supervised a number of PhDs, Masters and Honours students, as well as examining at all levels.

He has served on a range of school and university level committees at current and past universities. He served for two years as the Chair of the Mass Communication Program at Murdoch University and was program director for the BA Communication for two years at the University of Canberra where he developed courses for domestic and international programs. His research interests now include ethnography of design; history of media research; application of immersive media environments and global networks to design; broadcasting and related media fields; and social media and its role in e-governance; public opinion and news. He is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA), the European Consortium of Communication Research (ECCR), and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

Professor Balnaves has been a theme editor for Media International Australia and is a reviewer for the Journal of Communication Management. He has published over 90 refereed papers, including book chapters, with leading journals and publishers in the field. He has published a number of books with Penguin, Sage, Bloomsbury Academic and Palgrave MacMillan. These include Mobilising the Audience (2002), Media Theories and Approaches: A Global Perspective (2008), A New Theory of Information and the Internet: Public Sphere Meets Protocol (2011) and Rating the Audience: The Business of Media (2011). In 2011 he was invited as a ‘World Thinker’ to the annual Festival of Thinkers in the United Arab Emirates to debate and discuss media issues.

Qualifications

PhD, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 30/10/1991

Research

Research keywords

Audience Research

Diffusion and Adoption of New Media

E-Governance and Participatory Media

History of Audience Measurement

History of Media

Immersive Media

Social Equity and Media Policy

Social Games

Social Media

Research expertise

Professor Balnaves's major research interests and expertise are in:

immersive media;

future of media production (news, broadcasting, design);

e-governance;

history of media;

media and audiences;

diffusion and adoption of new media; and,

social equity and media policy.

Professor Balnaves research expertise portfolio includes:

Telstra/EIP and ACTEW:

At RMIT Professor Balnaves received $240,000 through the Telstra Fund for Social and Policy Research. This project was taken over by Patricia Palmer when I moved to Canberra. I received in Canberra a $15,000 competitive grant in 1994 from the Telstra Fund for Social and Policy Research in Telecommunications to begin preliminary planning of the longitudinal evaluation of Telstra Multimedia's broadband pilot in Gungahlin. Telstra Multimedia provided $94,000 for the baseline research. Telstra Multimedia suspended its trials of broadband in August 1996. The baseline study conducted for Telstra Multimedia was completed successfully in July 1996 and data has been provided in publications. Telstra's proposed broadband project was taken over by ACTEW, Canberra's energy and water utility. Professor Balnaves received $50,000 to undertake ACTEW’s baseline research. Both investigations led to the creation of actual services. In the case of Telstra the Gungahlin project was used in planning the establishment of BigPond. In the case of ACTEW the project was used for the establishment of TransACT.

Professor Balnaves also received an Evaluations and Investigations Program (DEETYA) grant of $350,000 to complement research in Gungahlin.

AOLAA:

At Murdoch University I have set up the Australasian Online Advertising Archive (AOLAA) with the Advertisers’ Federation of Australia (AFA) and the New Zealand Advertisers’ Federation (AAA). This was supported by a $48,000 grant to purchase a Sun250 server and equipment for digitisation.

Governing Media Audiences:

Together with Professor Tom O’Regan at the Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Professor Balnaves received funding to undertake a historical study of Australia’s television audiences. ACNielsen provided $20,000 additional support for interviews in a SPIRT bid.

Australian Research Council (ARC):

I have ARC LIEF, Linkage and Discovery Grants in the Communication and Media and Cultural Studies FOR Codes.

ARC LIEF D63170 Interactive Television Audience Laboratory

This grant established Australia’s first dedicated public research laboratory for assessing consumer motivation, evaluating program usability and theorising audience response to Interactive Television applications. Curtin/Murdoch/ECU and UWA were the joint funders. The laboratory features specialised testing equipment designed to emulate real-world digital broadcasting environments, enabling rich data on viewing behaviour to be collected and analysed.

ARC Discovery LP0349033 Smart Communities – Applied research into integrated government services and regional networked neighbourhoods to support children and young people at risk

This applied research project investigates and provides directions for improvement in the life choices available to children and young people at risk in remote, rural and urban areas of Western Australia. It does this by (i) conducting a detailed study of children and young people at risk, as identified by government and non-government agencies (ii) conducting quantitative and qualitative fieldwork into the communication patterns and information-seeking behaviour of children and young people at risk; (iii) exploring strategies and interventions through inter-agency co-operation in the provision of content and technology (as geographical or virtual communities).

ARC Discovery DP0770606 The Emergence, Development and Transformation of Media Ratings Conventions and Methodologies in Australia, 1930-2008

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

200102

Communication Technology And Digital Media Studies

40

200199

Communication And Media Studies Not Elsewhere Classified

30

200104

Media Studies

30

Collaboration

Professor Balnaves has been the chief or lead investigator on grants totalling more than $2million, the majority from commercial sources plus ARC LIEF, Linkage and Discovery grants. He is an ARC assessor. Professor Balnaves's recent ARC grants include:

Balnaves M, 'The social mood reader: Mapping citizen engagement using the semantic web and supercomputing', Refereed proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association conference: Communication on the edge 2011, Hamilton, New Zealand (2011) [E1]

2011

Balnaves M, 'The ratings intellectual', Refereed proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association conference: Communication on the edge 2011, Hamilton, New Zealand (2011) [E1]

Balnaves M, Allen M, 'Is e-Governance a Function of Government or Media? Some Directions for Future Research and Development of Electronically Mediated Citizen Participation', Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Milwaukee (2009) [E1]

Balnaves M, O'Regan T, 'Comparing Television Ratings Conventions: Australian and American approaches to broadcast ratings', Communication, Creativity and Global Citizenship: Refereed Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference 2009, Brisbane, Queensland (2009) [E1]

2009

Nelson L, Balnaves M, 'RSVP and the role of computer mediated communication and digital personae in social media', Communication, Creativity and Global Citizenship: Refereed Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference 2009, Brisbane, Queensland (2009) [E1]

2009

Balnaves M, Allen M, 'E-governance As Digital Ecosystem: A New Way to Think About Citizen Engagement and the Internet?', ICEG 2009 - 5th International Conference on eGovernment, Boston (2009) [E1]

Balnaves M, Luca J, 'The impact of digital persona on the future of learning: A case study on digital repositories and the sharing of information about children at risk in western australia', ASCILITE 2005 - The Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (2005) [E1]

2004

Balnaves M, Varan D, 'Digital television (DTV): An overview of developments in Australia, the USA and the UK', 2004 Australia and New Zealand Communication Association Conference Proceedings (ANZCA04), Sydney, New South Wales (2004) [E1]

2004

Balnaves M, Scott D, 'Smart communities: Using new media to assist children at risk', 2004 Australia and New Zealand Communication Association Conference Proceedings (ANZCA04), Sydney, New South Wales (2004) [E1]

Balnaves M, Caputi P, Rawstorne P, 'Key predictors of adoption of new media: the role of personality in diffusion of innovations', Published Proceedings of the 1998 Communications Research Forum, Canberra (1998) [E1]

Creativity and Cultural Production in the Hunter: an applied ethnographic study of new entrepreneurial systems in the creative industries.$30,000Funding Body: Newcastle Business Improvement Association Inc

2011 (1 grants)

Online Money and Fantasy Games - an applied ethnographic study into the new entrepreneurial communities.$240,000Funding Body: ARC (Australian Research Council)

Scheme

Role

Linkage Projects

Chief Investigator

Total Amount

Funding Start

Funding Finish

$240,000

2011

2013

GNo:180204186

2010 (1 grants)

Transitions to a Sustainable City - Geraldton WA: An applied study into co-creating sustainability though civic deliberation and social media$358,000Funding Body: ARC (Australian Research Council)

Scheme

Role

Linkage Projects

Chief Investigator

Total Amount

Funding Start

Funding Finish

$358,000

2010

2010

GNo:183959652

2006 (1 grants)

The Emergence, Development and Transformation of Media Ratings Conventions and Methodologies in Australia, 1930-2008$265,000Funding Body: ARC (Australian Research Council)

Scheme

Role

Discovery Projects

Chief Investigator

Total Amount

Funding Start

Funding Finish

$265,000

2006

2006

GNo:183959672

2005 (1 grants)

Australian responses to the images and discourses of terrorism and the other: establishing a metric of fear$146,000Funding Body: ARC (Australian Research Council)

Scheme

Role

Discovery Projects

Chief Investigator

Total Amount

Funding Start

Funding Finish

$146,000

2005

2005

GNo:183959684

2003 (3 grants)

Smart Communities: applied research into integrated government services and regional networked neighbourhoods to support children and young people at risk.$125,000Funding Body: ARC (Australian Research Council)

1998 (4 grants)

Driver Education and Information Package, Institute for Research in Safety and Transport, Murdoch University$40,000Funding Body: Office of Road Safety

Scheme

Role

Unknown

Chief Investigator

Total Amount

Funding Start

Funding Finish

$40,000

1998

1998

GNo:183959772

Development of the National Online Advertising Archive$8,000Funding Body: RBIG

Scheme

Role

Murdoch University/Advertising Federation of Australia collaboration

Chief Investigator

Total Amount

Funding Start

Funding Finish

$8,000

1998

1998

GNo:183959796

Crossing Cultural Frontiers$5,000Funding Body: WorldSpace

Scheme

Role

Conference Sponsorship

Chief Investigator

Total Amount

Funding Start

Funding Finish

$5,000

1998

1998

GNo:183959804

Constructing the Australian Television Audience: an analysis of the role of Australian advertising and marketing trade journals and conferences in conceptualising audiences$2,475Funding Body: Murdoch University

Research Supervision

For supervisions undertaken at an institution other that the University of Newcastle, the institution name is listed below the program name.

Current Supervision

Commenced

ProposedCompletion

Program

Supervisor Type

Research Title

2014

2018

M Philosophy (Comm&Med Arts)

Principal Supervisor

Creative Industries as a Catalyst for Urban Renewal and Economic Development: An Empirical Study into the Evolution and Effectiveness of Strategies Based on the Creative Industries to Deliver Jobs Growth and Urban Revitalization in Newcastle with Particular Emphasis on the Roles Assumed by Creative Women

2014

2022

PhD (Comm & Media Arts)

Principal Supervisor

Accessing Modern Cultural Assets: Policies, Politics and Practices in a Digital Age

2014

2018

PhD (Comm & Media Arts)

Principal Supervisor

Addicted to the Net. A Comparative Australia and China Study on the Role of Social Media, Families and Fandom in the Construction of Youth Identity